8+ best places where to sell your 3D models

Now that you can get commercial use for your own 3D designs in Vectary, one thing left to do is finding a good place to sell your beautiful work. As with any creative work, finishing a design is only half the battle. Next you have to make your model visible to the world and sell it. Luckily now you don’t have to physically knock on doors and sell your stuff around your neighborhood.

Source: https://www.vectary.com/commercial

Choose an online 3D marketplace that suits your needs

The easiest way to sell your 3D designs is finding an online marketplace that matches your 3D model’s theme. There are plenty of online 3D repositories for buying and selling, and choosing one is really up to the artist’s preference. Some are specialized in CG designs, others in architectural models or jewelry, etc, so it’s all really up to you.

What you have to know is that these marketplaces each have their specifictraffic and royalty rates. The rule of thumb is that those who pay the highest royalties take the smallest cut, so here you can make more money for each sale.

Make sure to also check the traffic for the online marketplace you have in sight. The more traffic the site gets, the more likely for your models to be exposed to potential buyers. To measure traffic for a certain website, you can try Alexa rankings which should give you a pretty accurate look into the matter.

Best online marketplaces for selling your 3D models

Here’s a list of what we believe are some of the best places for you to sell your work online:

Probably the most well-known, TurboSquid is also considered one of the best and largest marketplaces for high-quality 3D models, with over half a million designs available in its library. The site gets a lot of traffic which means it’s a good place for you to get visibility and sales.

TurboSquid offer users up to 80% royalties for selling their work. If you decide to sell exclusively here, you can get their highest royalty rates on your sales. You also get featured in their newsletters and site pages or get reports on best-selling categories and keywords.

There are a lot of payment options: by wire transfer, check, PayPal and Payonner. Just make sure you complete your member profile information so that there are no payment restrictions.

CGTrader is the largest 3D model marketplace for computer graphics,VR, AR and gaming, and is backed by a strong professional designer community. 3D artists, design studios and businesses all share and sell their models on CGTrader.

You can find here a very solid customer base, with enterprises and businesses looking for top-notch 3D models to use them in their projects. If they cannot find the model they need on the platform, they can also hire you as a designer for a custom job.

The royalties are the highest in the market, with up to a 90% royalty rate on sales.

Shapeways is a very attractive option if you’re selling jewelry, decorations, tech accessories or toys. It allows you to upload your 3D models and sell physical copies of them. There’s a big selection of 3D printing materials so your customers can choose to 3D print your designs in whatever color and material they want.

The site has a flexible royalty scale. They set a price based on how much it costs them to manufacture the 3D print (think volume and material). Then you can choose how much of a markup you want to add. Although you’re free to set an 80% markup at Shapeways, you run the risk of overpricing yourself, so better keep it low.

When you open your own Shapeways “shop”, you can add pictures and stories so you can better advertise yourself and sell your models. Nice photos of your products usually bring in more buyers.

Cults is both a marketplace and social network that connects designers and people who want 3D printable objects. They cover many categories such as fashion accessories, jewelry, furniture, gadgets, games or tools, so it’s definitely worth checking it out. Once you become a member and upload your first 3D model, you officially become a seller on Cults.

Exclusivity again counts, meaning they will feature you regularly on their homepage and social networks or in their newsletters if your work is only available on Cults. Transfers of money from sales are done bi-monthly via PayPal to the email address that you provided when you registered on Cults.

PlanMarketplace was created by a team of architects and engineers. This easy-to-navigate website is rather specialized, mostly in drawings produced in CAD, so you’ll find a lot of architecture-related designs here. Under the current standard pricing option, the author/seller receives 60% of the total sale. Payments are made through your PayPal account.

If you’re a DIY maker, you should already be familiar with Etsy. This e-commerce website has a huge number of members and the selection of items in their marketplace is probably the most diverse.

Etsy is a great place to sell 3D printed models, whether it is 3D printed clothing and accessories, furniture pieces and jewelry, smartphone cases, toys, you name it. With so many possibilities, you might consider getting a 3D printer — it is a good investment. Or you can win the $3,600 M-Jewelry 3D printer from MakeX that we’re offering as the main prize in our and MyMiniFactory’s design competition.

3DSquirrel specializes in digital 3D models for the CG industry.They offer artists who sell designs very competitive royalty rates and try to give everyone an equal chance of having their work promoted. They also introduced promotional banners across the whole website so each seller now has an increased opportunity to have their 3D models featured.

With nearly 800,000 members, this 2D and 3D online art community boasts one of the largest marketplaces for digital content. If you choose to sell in their MarketPlace, they offer free advertising options while also giving competitive industry rates.

Sketchfab has recently introduced the “paid download” feature for models hosted on their site, which houses a community of 1.3 million members. Users, who want to start selling their models and have them featured in the Sketchfab store should apply to become sellers. Sketchfab's commission is 30%. Read more about becoming a seller in the help section.

Get active and focus on quality first rather than quantity, making sure your models are error-free. What marketplaces have you used so far? Add your suggestions in the comments below.